Tastes

To be fair, they basically just started making whisky and for the short time they do it, they are doing okay. That being said, Del Bac is a perfect example to show that making good Scotch needs decades of experience and they just don't have that yet. Also, there is a huge difference between aging and maturing. With their small barrels, they can mature their whisky in less than a year but by no means is it well aged. As with baking bread, time is an ingredient that cannot be substituted. Del Bac is just not ready for prime time, at least not for serious whisky lovers. It can hold its water against a $20 blend from your super market but falls fast and far behind anything else. I will give this a try again in a decade, when they have more experience and moved to bigger barrels and longer aging.

As someone who usually sticks to Single Malt Scotch, I have to say that I am very pleased with this rye. It has the typical Jack vanilla notes but it is a lot more grown up than an Old No.7 or even a Gentlemen Jack. It's a rye, not a bourbon and a good one at that. Remembering those cheap Jim Beams and Jacks I had in the past was the reason I stayed away from American Whiskey for so long. The Single Barrel Rye changed that. It even is on my top shelf now, which is surprising for a Scotch guy.